Huge night of boxing this Friday in Arklow

Sean's opponent Eamon Walsh was expected to provide Sean with a hard fight but when Sean landed some solid rights the Mayo man held on to survive the three rounds. Meanwhile Sean continues his preparation for his meeting with Joe Ward. Sean is sparring with Olympic team captain Darren O'Neill and Olympic silver medallist Kenneth Egan. Both boxers are like Ward, southpaws and should give Sean some idea of what's facing him in the club's main show of the year in the Arklow Bay Hotel this Friday night, November 9. Other fights which are sure to please are first at welterweight when Arklow's Fergal Redmond takes on Jonathan Dowling from Paulstown and Arklow's Elaine Harrison takes on Ciara Dowling from Paulstown. Both Kilkenny boxers are first cousins and their uncle is Mick Dowling, a former Olympian. In the heavyweight division Darragh Keenan takes on Steven Redmond from St Aidans which should be a gruelling battle. In another bout not for the faint hearted the middleweight clash between Adam Keenan Arklow and former Irish champion Eddie Byrne of Wexford CBS should be a thriller. At lightweight Aaron Lyons will trade punches with Irish champion Dean Walsh. Arklows light heavyweight Colm O'Neill will take on Keith Dwyer from Wexford club Clonard. On the schoolboy front Tomas Lynch will be in action against Brandon Dodd from Clonard and Sean Crowley, who chalked up his second impressive win against Colm Boyd from Rystan at the weekend in the Wexford leagues, will take on Sacre Couer boxer Ryan Kirwan. Liam Moore who is also undefeated in the league will take on another undefeated boxer Liam Gregory Hayes of Our Lady of Fatima in Wicklow. Moving up a weight Arklow's Conor Kenny will face off against Michael Kehoe of Sacre Couer. The club are still trying to match their Leinster champions Peter Byrne and Paddy McKenzie. Also on the agenda are special bouts for Owen Moore, Nathan McCarthy Eimhin McCormack and Andrei Kulachenko and some of the clubs up and coming under age boxers. The tournament will commence at 7.30pm with four exhibitions followed by 12 top class bouts. Admission is adults €10 and €5 for children. In the main event Joe Ward, who is the most decorated male boxer in the country, will face Sean Allen. Ward was crowned World Junior champion and one year later became World Youth Champion. Joe is currently European Senior champion and Irish Senior champion havin defeated Kenneth Egan in the final.